The NFL kicks off its 2024 season on Thursday, and if there's one thing the league can count on, it's that millions of Americans will be tuning in.
The NFL is the single most popular TV product in America. And it's not even remotely close. To wit: Of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2023, 93 were NFL games. In fact, the entire Top 20 consisted of NFL broadcasts, with only the State of the Union address keeping the NFL from sweeping the Top 50. When the NFL is on, millions of Americans watch — it's as certain as death and taxes.
Both the NFL and its broadcast partners are well aware of this. And if you're a fan, you've likely felt it in your wallet. With the rise of streaming, the NFL has spread its broadcast rights across multiple platforms. Here's the list of channels, networks, and streaming services that have exclusive rights to NFL games in 2024:
CBS
FOX
NBC
ABC
Peacock
NFL Network
Amazon Prime
ESPN
ESPN+
Netflix
YouTube TV
That's nearly an NFL property for every major broadcaster — Apple narrowly missed out, and while HBO has Hard Knocks, it doesn't air any games.
To be clear, most fans don’t watch every NFL game. They’ll tune in for their favorite team, the primetime matchups, and the occasional random games. But what if someone wanted to watch every single NFL game? Or, more realistically, what if most fans at least wanted the option to watch any game they choose? The cost is staggering.
By my calculations, it would run you at least $891.36. That's a hefty price to pay for watching football from your couch, but plenty of Americans will gladly pay it.
Let’s take a step back and break down which games air on which broadcaster. The NFL has cleverly sliced and diced its broadcast rights to maximize profits. New players like Netflix or Prime are willing to shell out billions to get a piece of the NFL pie, while the league’s longstanding partners aren’t likely to complain — after all, the NFL holds all the leverage.
Here’s how the NFL’s broadcast rights are divided among various broadcasters for the 2024-25 season. And just to be clear, we’re not including preseason games here because, well, those don’t really count.
CBS and, in turn, Paramount+ is the home of the AFC. On any given NFL Sunday you'll get either a local team's game, a national game, or some combination of both in the 1 p.m. ET and 4 p.m. window. The AFC playoff and championship games will also be on CBS.
FOX is essentially CBS but for the NFC. This is common knowledge for NFL fans and has been engraved in their heads for years.
The marquee Sunday Night Football match-ups air on NBC, which has become a prime destination for the NFL's biggest games each week. NBC will also broadcast the season opener this Thursday and one of the Thanksgiving Day games — but it’s worth noting that these aren’t technically part of the Thursday Night Football package.
NBC's streaming service, Peacock, will also feature an exclusive game this year: Friday's matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, which will be played in Brazil.
Four separate international games will air on NFL Network, as will a number of yet-to-be-decided Saturday games later in the season.
Prime will broadcast Thursday Night Football in Weeks 2-17 and exclusively stream a playoff game.
ESPN holds the rights to Monday Night Football. Some games also air on ABC, and some weeks, there are double headers with one game airing on each channel.
This year, ESPN's premium streaming service will also have its own exclusive game. The Week 7 match-up between the Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals will be available only on ESPN+.
Netflix has NFL games this season, too. It'll exclusively air two games on Christmas.
YouTube TV has the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which is the primary way to get access to out-of-market, non-primetime games.
Roughly speaking, the total comes to $891.36. To arrive at that figure, I had to make a few assumptions. I started from scratch, assuming our hypothetical NFL fan didn’t have a cable package, any existing streaming subscriptions, or shared accounts — no mooching off someone else's Netflix. I also only accounted for the cost from the NFL regular season kickoff in September through the Super Bowl in February.
Given those assumptions, the most cost-effective option to access most NFL games is YouTube TV. The key reason is that YouTube TV holds the exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which gives you access to most non-primetime games that aren't broadcasted on your local FOX or CBS affiliate. So, it's a must-have for serious fans. YouTube TV offers a Sunday Ticket deal that costs four payments of $158.99 ($94.75 for the NFL Sunday Ticket and $64.24 for the YouTube TV base plan) for the first four months, then $72.99 per month for the YouTube TV subscription going forward.
Assuming you sign up at the optimal time in September, your total would add up to $781.94 to get you through the Super Bowl. The good news is that YouTube TV, along with having exclusive access to Sunday Ticket, includes most of the channels you'll need for NFL coverage — CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, ESPN, and the NFL Network are all part of the base package.
That leaves you needing Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, and ESPN+. Estimating the exact cost for these services is tricky because a user could, in theory, take advantage of free trials. However, they might forget to cancel them. For simplicity's sake, I assumed our fan paid for a month’s subscription for each service during the months the platform had at least one NFL game. I also assumed they were canceled as soon as the games ended. Based on this, you’d need five months of Prime ($74.95), one month of Netflix ($15.49), one month of Peacock ($7.99), and one month of ESPN+ ($10.99).
Adding these to YouTube TV's Sunday Ticket costs brings the total to $891.36. Including playoffs, there is a combined total of 285 games in an NFL season. That means each game costs about $3.13, though, of course, you can't purchase the broadcast for single games.
Of course, your actual cost could be higher or lower. Few people lack any of these services entirely, and many might have access to a shared password or two. But if you're already a cable subscriber — perhaps because of a bundle that includes internet — you could pay even more since you'd still need Sunday Ticket via YouTube. But, to be clear, there are far more reasonable options than shelling out nearly a grand to watch the NFL on TV. A service like Sling Orange, for instance, could get you ESPN and your local CBS/FOX affiliate stations for $40 per month. You could also sign up for Sling Blue, which comes with NFL Network and then you can upgrade to pay $51 per month to also include RedZone.
But still, being an absolutely diehard NFL fan doesn't come cheap. $891.36 is a hefty chunk of change to watch every game, but when you consider that the average ticket to see a game live in 2023 was around $370, maybe watching from home isn't such a bad deal after all.
